


The Saxon Thane

by Deshima



Category: The Saxon Stories-Bernard Cornwell, Vikings (TV)
Genre: Cross-Generation Relationship, Crossover, Future Fic, Gen, Probably not very good, Will Probably Be Jossed, written for kicks and fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 09:58:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1300792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deshima/pseuds/Deshima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Small drabbles concerning one of my favourite characters from Vikings: Athelstan.<br/>So far it deals with how other people view him through time</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ubbe

**Author's Note:**

> Last episode gave me a case of feels concerning Athelstan and little Ubbe was too cute for words. Also I am running on too little sleep and english is not my native language.

Ubbe has always held some form of fascination for his father’s saxon Thane.  
With his dark hair and strange accent Athelstan stands out among the blond and raucous Danes and from an early age on Ubbe took to following him. When he was younger his mother did not like to have him out of her sight so at first he could only study Athelstan when the latter was in his father’s hall. He would observe the saxon from behind pillars or from behind his father´s and mother´s legs. Athelstan of course is no fool now and was no fool then. He quickly noticed he was being observed and turned it into a game. He would ignore Ubbe until the little boy felt brave enough to come closer en then he would suddenly stare hard at him, causing the young Ragnarson to quickly scurry back to his hiding place. Athelstan would laugh then, soft and low, nothing like his father´s more rough and sarcastic chuckle or uncle Floki´s highpitched giggle.

When he was older and his mother no longer so afraid to lose him, Ubbe started to follow Athelstan outside of the the hall as well. Athelstan was a proper thane by then, with several arm rings, a good sword gifted to him by Ragnar, and his own house though he could still usually be found in Ragnar´s hall more often than not.

The place Athelstan was most often found after Ragnar´s hall was the training field. Athelstan trained often and hard as if he had something to prove and Ubbe quickly saw that the long hours had turned the saxon thane in a formidable fighter. He was not as strong as Ubbe´s father or as fast as uncle Floki but Athelstan had found a middle ground that made him near unbeatable in most sparring bouts. Only when fighting Ragnar, Torstein or Floki did the saxon meet his equal.

Imagine then Ubbe´s surprise then when he heard Uncle Floki jokingly call Athelstan “Priest” one day. Athelstan? A Priest? It did not match with the loyal and fierce fighter Ubbe saw daily. By then however he already knew why Athelstan looked so different from the rest of his father’s thanes. Up till now though he had always assumed that Athelstan had already been a warrior before entering his father’s service. He’d imagined grand tales of his father saving Athelstan’s life in some way and the saxon giving his loyalty in return. However the story he was told when he finally gathered his courage and asked his father about the odd nickname almost made his head hurt.

And yet after some thought it fit.  
Athelstan was fierce yes and good in a fight but he never sought out or provoked a fight himself. He would willingly join any battle where Ragnar needed him but he did not lust after battle as de danish thanes did. He held no thralls and was always polite and gentle to Ragnar’s thralls. And though nowadays he would often teasingly kiss Helga, Uncle Floki’s notoriously flirty wife, or pull her on his lap, it was clearly meant as a joke and Ubbe had never seen Athelstan seriously court or seduce a woman. Though well-buried by now the traces of the Priest Athelstan had once been could still be found if one looked. Christianity had been such an integral part of Athelstan life and foundation once upon a time that even now while he breathed and lived the pagan viking way it could not be taken away.


	2. Uthred of Bebbanburg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This a crossover with the Saxon Stories from Bernard Cornwell. Uthred of Bebbanburg is a saxon noble who is kidnapped/adopted at the age of ten by Earl Ragnar Ravnson ( no relative of Ragnar Lothbrok who already met death by snake by then) and gets raised amongst danes for the rest of his childhood. He later goes back to the saxon side but he keeps a great love for his danish friends and adopted relatives. This takes place when Uthred is about thirteen or so when the Great Heathen Army ( originally raised to avenge Ragnar Lothbrok's death ) winters in London. I Imagine that he might have met Athelstan then if the man was still alive and kicking.

They meet once in London. Athelstan is old by then, in his fifties which is old for a normal man and even older for a man who spend his whole life fighting at the sides of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons. Uthred is only a stripling boy then, one body in the substantial warband that Earl Ragnar Ravnson brought to join the Great Heathen Army. They meet during one of Uthred’s idle afternoons while his adoptive father is discussing plans with with the other leaders of the Army. Brida is not with him for once as she is feeling ill and Uthred is bored out of his mind without her to find some mischief. 

He spots the man in front of one of London’s old churches. Tall and leaner than most danes under the chainmail and furs, he has a curly mop of steel gray hair, several arm rings and a good sword at his side. What holds Uthred’s attention however is the way the man looks at the monks leaving the church after mass and the fact that though he is wearing a hammer at his throat he is fingering an old iron cross. 

The man notices him despite Uthred’s best attempts to stay unseen and waves him over.  
“And who might you be, boy? ‘he asks in slighly accented danish. His voice holds little emotion but his eyes are not unkind.  
‘Uthred, my Lord,’he says. The man’s eyes light up in recognition.  
“Ah,’ he softly exclaims. “Earl Ragnar Ravnson’s saxon son.”  
Uthred nods, surprised that this strange warrior knows of him.  
‘And who are you ?’ he boldly asks in return.  
\- Athelstan.  
Uthred’s eyes widen. Suddenly he knows exactly who the man in front of him is. He has heard a lot about the man called Athelstan the Black though some are whispering it should be the Gray now as there is very little black left in the man’s shaggy mop of hair. When he was small and still called Osbert, Uthred had heard father Beocca call him the Black Traitor and curse him as the worst heretic of Christianity. To the Danes however Athelstan is known as the closest friend and most loyal thane of king Ragnar Lothbrok himself. After Ragnar Lothbrok’s death in King Aelle’s snake-pit, the man had turned his fierce loyalty to Ragnar’s sons and he had accompanied the brothers back to England and it was said that he had personally assisted them when they subjected the fat king to the blood eagle. 

Uthred has trouble reconciling both images with the soft-spoken, tired-looking warrior that he sees before him.  
“I take you have heard of me,’ Athelstan asks chuckling softly. Uthred nods mutely, for once not really knowing what to say. Luckily for him Athelstan changes the subject.  
“How do you like it amongst the danes?’he asks. He looks a bit worried as if he is wondering if the danes are treating him right.  
‘Better than with the saxons,” Uthred replies smartly.  
“Oh?’ Athelstan says, cocking his head. “And why is that so?”  
-They let me fight and don’t want me to learn to read.  
Athelstan laughs at the statement.  
“Ah yes,”He says. “Reading, the bane of every high-spirited boy.”  
Uthred grins and nods, glad to find understanding from somebody who shares a similar fate.


	3. King Aelle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is very little information about King Aelle. WHat we do know from histories written sometimes centuries after the fact is that he was King after a King Osbert who might have been his brother and that the power transition was not a peaceful one. This is estimated to happen around 862 which is only three years before Ragnar Lothbrok's estimated death in 865 and Northumbria is still said to be embroiled in a civil war between Aelle and Osbert when the Great Heathen Army conquers Eoforwic/Jorvik/York from the temporarily united Saxon forces. 
> 
> As the show pictured king Aelle already firmly in power when Ragnar just started his raids I've chosen to ignore this. Instead Aelle seized power from his brother a few years before the first raid and exiled his brother. He enjoys a few years of uncontested rule, suffers Ragnar's raids and in 862 Osbert comes back to reclaim his throne. Northhumbria descends into civil war, Aelle throws Ragnar to the snakes in 865 and in 866 the Great Heathen Army lands. Osbert and Aelle form a temporary alliance but lose at the battle of Eoferwic. Osbert is killed and Aelle is either killed as well or suffers the blood-eagle from Ragnar's sons depending on the source.

They know of each other's existence long before they meet for the first and last time. Athelstan of course never did not know of King Aelle’s existence. He was born and raised in Northumbria and one could not live there and not know of the royal family and its feuds. 

When Athelstan’d first heard of Aelle he had not been king and had not been so fat. He’d merely been King Osbert’s brother. King Osbert had not been a bad king: relatively fair to the common folk, a decent strategist and a shrewd enough man to play the nobles of his court. He’d made one mistake though and that was to ignore the ambition of his younger half-brother. Athelstan had already been given to the monastry when Aelle overthrew his brother so he never suffered the consequences himself. But as a monk he’d sometimes accompanied the monastry’s healers when they made their rounds through the surrounding villages and he did not miss the misery that the common folk suffered under King Aelle’s rule. And even though the bishop of Eoforwic had declared Aelle’s rule righteous and blessed by God he could not help but wonder.

King Aelle learned of Athelstan’s existence only much later. He had already made himself a reputation of a fierce and loyal warrior by then and his origins were well known as well. Athelstan does not know how Aelle reacted when he was told that one of Ragnar Lothbrok’s best thanes used to be one of his subjects. He rather suspects though it must have been...Impressive.

When they finally meet years later, Aelle is a grey and fat, quivering in fear at the feet of Ragnar’s sons and Athelstan is not young anymore. It is a year after Ragnar’s death in Aelle’s snake pit and Halfdan and Ivar have recently taken Eoforwic, soon to be renamed Jorvik.

Aelle knows that the Ragnarsons will have no mercy for their father’s murderer. His eyes however, small and somewhat lost in the fat folds of his face but filled with a desperate kind of shrewdness are still searching for an escape. He easily spots Athelstan who stands out with his greying mop of black hair among the blonde danes. They have never met before but there is little doubt as to who Athelstan is. There is only one black-haired man who stands among the Ragnarsons as an equal.  
‘Help me!’Aelle pleads in saxon. “Help me! I am your king.”  
“What is he saying, Uncle Athelstan?” Ivar asks in danish. “He’s speaking too fast to understand.”  
“He’s begging,’Athelstan replies in the same tongue.Then he switches to saxon.  
“I have no king,”he says to Aelle. “You killed him.”  
Then he hands his knife to Halfdan.

Athelstan is not a cruel man. But Aelle’s screams as Ragnar’s sons perform the blood-eagle on on their father’s murderer are like music to his ears.


End file.
